Discuss more about Sheen at the Barnes Home Guard Club this Thursday, 24 October 2024 at 11am. Free entry.

In 1914 Admiral Sir Hedworth Lambton Meux (pronounced Mews, 1856 – 1929) sold land at Sheen House to Arthur Cecil Hovenden, a local doctor. We know this from an abstract of title in the possession of the Barnes Home Guard Club referring to conveyances at that time. The local reference books record that Sheen House was demolished in 1907. At some point 175 Sheen Lane was built and Hovenden lived there until 1946. The precise details of the sale of land to the Club in or about 1944 remain to be investigated but they now have a registered title at premises known as 76A Richmond Park Road.

Lambton had an illustrious and noteworthy naval career. He was commander of the Naval Brigade at Ladysmith in 1899 and helped in its relief. After hearing the story of the naval guns at Ladysmith, Lady Meux had ordered six 12-pounder cannon on travelling carriages to be made and sent out to Southern Africa. 

At that time Valerie Susan Meux, the beautiful socialite widow of Sir Henry Brent Meux (of Meux Brewery, later Friary Meux), who had died in 1900, owned the property at Sheen House. She lived at the family seat at Theobalds House near Cheshunt. An eccentric, she built a roller skating rink there and drove around in her phaeton drawn by zebras. Sheen House had a purpose built cycle track, the home of the Sheen House Cycling Club from 1896. Did they move straight to Richmond Park?

When Lambton returned to England, he called on Lady Meux to thank her for her gift of the guns. He described to her his naval experiences and praised the patriotic spirit of her gift. 

Lady Meux was “touched by this tribute” and, having no heirs herself, she wrote a will making Lambton the heir to the large fortune left by her husband on his death in 1900, including her house at Theobalds Park in Hertfordshire and Sheen House. The only condition was that Lambton should change his name to Meux. 

When she died on 20 December 1910, he willingly changed his name by Royal Warrant, and inherited the Meux Hertfordshire estate, a substantial interest in the Meux Brewery and Sheen House. 

Lambton became a naval aide-de-camp to Queen Victoria in 1901, attended her funeral on 2 February 1901 and then subsequently became naval aide-de-camp to King Edward VII. He was MP for Portsmouth from 1914 to 1918.

In 1910, Lambton married Mildred Cecilia Harriet, daughter of Henry Sturt, 1st Baron Alington and widow of Henry Cadogan, Viscount Chelsea; they had no children, though he acquired five step-children, who inherited the bulk of his estate. 

In 1914 he sold land at Sheen House to Arthur Cecil Hovenden.  He died in 1929 and is buried in Cheshunt Cemetery. His portrait is in the National Portrait Gallery.